Egypt orders release of a journalist on hunger strike

Egypt’s attorney general ordered Monday afternoon release of Abdullah al-Shami, an Egyptian journalist from Al Jazeera carrying around 130 days on hunger strike to protest his legal situation. Al-Shami was arrested in August last year, and has not yet gone to court. The reporter will be released along with a dozen other people, all for health reasons, as reported by the official news agency MENA.

Having lost more than 40 kilos, the family of al-Shami had warned that his health was so fragile that even endangered his life. Prison authorities had placed the reporter, 26 years old, in an isolation cell in Tora prison to force him to abandon his hunger strike. During these months, there have only ingested water and juices, and has reported strong pressure from prison officials to take solid food.

“Abdullah al-Shami has prevailed against the injustice and isolation with nothing but an incredible will and an empty stomach. I’m proud of it, “he wrote on his twitter account Mosaab his brother al-Shami, a renowned photojournalist. It is not yet clear when the release will occur, and if the reporter considered a ” prisoner of conscience ” by Amnesty International, will be transported directly to a hospital.

Al-Shami was arrested on August 14 while covering the brutal eviction from a camp set up by supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi Islamist. During these ten months, the Egyptian judiciary has been periodically renewing their preventive imprisonment, while being investigated for various charges, including inciting violence and disrupting public order. His release does not mean that your case has been filed, so you may end up being charged.

The news coincided with a new session in the trial of three Al Jazeera journalists detained in Egypt accused of belonging to or collaborating with the Muslim Brotherhood, considered a “terrorist organization ” by the Egyptian authorities. These include a australian, Peter Greste. The judge has set June 23 as the date on which pronounce sentence.

In this process, which has attracted considerable interest internationally, are being judged a total of 20 people, nine of them remain in police custody and the rest absconded. Of the accused, Al Jazeera only recognizes nine as his employees, while the rest would be students who would have provided images to the catarí station, which the Egyptian government accused of spreading false information to further the interests of the Brotherhood.

” On June 23, the whole world will be looking to Egypt to see if safeguarding the values ??of press freedom,” he said in a statement to Al Jazeera, which has always denied the allegations of the Egyptian government on its relations with the Islamic Brotherhood. The conflict between Cairo and catarí station is triggered after deposition of Islamist Mohamed Morsi raïs, on July 3 last year. The player taking the stroke, the then defense minister Abdelfattá al- Sisi, assumed the presidency just over a week ago after sweeping presidential elections in late May.

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Posted by Shakira Subhani on Jun 18 2014. Filed under Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.